Marshwood wrestlers pin down title repeat

Sunday

Feb 3, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By John CochinJcochin@fosters.com

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Leading by 25.5 points heading into the finals of the Western Maine Class A Regional wrestling tournament, Marshwood High School already had enough points to win the title. But that didn’t prevent them from doing even better in the finals as the Hawks tacked enough points to win the overall title by 40.5 points, accumulating a total of 237.5 points to second-place Noble’s 197.

Massabesic was third with 157 points followed by Sanford with 98.5 and Bonny Eagle with 94. Biddeford finished sixth with 63 points followed by Kennebunk (58), Portland (58), Deering 33 and Cheverus (31).

Both Marshwood and Noble qualified 12 wrestlers for next week’s state meet to be held in Augusta, but six of Marshwood’s wrestlers placed first and three placed second. Two others finished third and another placed fourth.

Marshwood defended its regional title and will now look to defend its state title.

Only two Noble wrestlers captured championships and three placed second. Two other Knight wrestlers finished third and five finished in fourth place.

“We needed to send as many to the states with high finishes as we could because one of the teams we will face is Skowhegan, said to be one of the top teams in the state,” said Marshwood coach Matt Rix. “So we were very pleased that we were able to send nine kids to the finals today with six of them coming away as champions.”

Placing second for the Hawks were Elliot Allen (113), Trevor Smith (132) and Luke Howarth (170). Taking thirds were Darren LaPointe (106) and 126-pound William Bellottie (126). Eric Pratt, wrestling at 220, rounded out the 12 wrestlers heading for the state meet.

Noble’s two champions were Bill Gagner 113 and Jacob Guimond at 195. Placing second for Noble were Otto Keisker (145), Jon Badger (160), and Robert Worell (220).

“We’re a young squad and have been improving as the season progressed,” said Noble coach Kip DeVoll. “Marshwood beat us badly a couple of times during the season so felt we improved in that respect since we did better against them today than in the past.”

DeVoll was also pleased with the showing against Massabesic. “We lost to Massabesic in a recent meet, but I was happy to see us finish ahead of them today,” said DeVoll. “I feel good overall about the team but we have some certain individuals that we need to get more out of next week.”

Marshwood’s Davidson is heading to the states for the fourth time in as many years. He won championships in each of his three previous years and a win next week will put him in an elite group of Maine wrestlers who have won state titles in each of their four years.

On Saturday, he defeated Massabesic’s Lucas Dion 7-3 in the championship finals.

“I was especially pleased to win especially since Dion had defeated me twice this year,” said Davidson. “To prepare for today, I focused on mistakes I made against him in the two previous matches and my game plan was to not make the same mistakes this time. I knew if I pushed hard enough I could beat him.

Davidson, a senior, will attend U.S. Navy Prep School in Newport Rhode Island following graduation with hopes of eventually attending the Naval Academy.